Twenty-year-old Trinidad and Tobago winger Levi Garcia will spend his immediate future in north Israel, after agreeing to swap the Dutch Eredivisie for Israeli Premier League club Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona FC.

For Garcia, the surprise move ends a two and a half year spell in the Netherlands top flight that brimmed with potential at one point but eventually ended without a contract offer from either of his two employers there.

Photo: Trinidad and Tobago winger Levi Garcia (left) runs at United States left-back Jorge Villafana during 2018 World Cup qualifying action in Couva on 10 October 2017.(Courtesy Chevaughn Christopher/Wired868)

Garcia scored one goal in each of his first two seasons with AZ Alkmaar and once on loan to SVB Excelsior—for a total of three goals from 45 Eredivisie appearances. He played for 90 minutes in just four of those outings.

And, with his contract with AZ due to expire, there has been no offer of a renewal from that club or Excelsior. Wired868 understands that the Israel Premiership was seen as a chance for Garcia to rebuild his rhythm and confidence—while earning a good wage—before a possible return to a top-flight European club.

Ironi Kriyat Shmona are poised to finish as champions in the eight-team Israeli League, which sees clubs face each other four times during the regular season. Already, they are assured of European football, since Israel became a UEFA member in 1994—as a means of avoiding inevitable conflicts during competitive fixtures against their Arab neighbours.

The 27-year-old Hasselbaink, who was born in the Netherlands but is capped by Suriname, is the nephew of former Netherlands and Chelsea forward Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.

Photo: An aerial view of Kiryat Shmona.

Garcia’s new home town, Kiryat Shmona, is situated near Israel’s border with Lebanon and has been targeted by rocket strikes during times of Hezbollah-led unrest. But it has not faced any such shelling in 12 years.

Otherwise, it is a small town—Kiryat’s population of 23,000 is almost identical to that of Laventille or Tunapuna—whose economy is built on communications, information technology and electronics as well as agriculture and tourism. The residents there are over 93 percent Jewish and mostly of Moroccan extraction.

It is, arguably, the first hiccup in Garcia’s career so far. He was just 17 when he travelled to the Netherlands for trials and so impressed the coaching staff at AZ that they agreed terms even before they could legally sign him on his 18th birthday.

He was 18 years and 65 days old when he became the youngest ever Trinidad and Tobago player to feature in a European top-flight match. The following weekend—on 30 January 2016—Garcia became his country’s youngest ever scorer at that level too, as he struck within three minutes of coming off the bench in a 3-0 win away to NEC.

Both records were previously held by Trinidad and Tobago’s most celebrated export, Dwight Yorke.

Garcia made a storming debut to his senior international career too, as he came on as a substitute to score twice in Arnos Vale when the Soca Warriors recovered from a 2-1 deficit to win 3-2 in a vital 2018 World Cup qualifier. In the process, he also became T&T’s youngest scorer in a senior FIFA contest.

Photo: Trinidad and Tobago winger Levi Garcia (right) celebrates with Soca Warriors fans after his double set up a 3-2 World Cup qualifying win over St Vincent and the Grenadines at Arnos Vale on 25 March 2016.Garcia was 18 at the time.(Courtesy Allan V Crane/CA-images/Wired868)

Garcia has played 15 times for Trinidad and Tobago since, 11 of those caps coming with him on the starting XI. But he is yet to score again in red, white and black strip.

In 2017, reputable British football magazine Four Four Two named Garcia as the 37th best teenager in the world:

“Garcia has already been tipped for greatness by Marco van Basten, and broken a couple of Dwight Yorke records. The Trinidadian packs sprinter’s pace, hypnotic trickery and, unlike several wingers, is hard to knock off the ball. He can’t half whack a ball, too, according to Van Basten—an apt judge of a venomous shot.”

One place behind Garcia in Four Four Two’s 2017 ranking was Ajax attacker Justin Kluivert, son of former Netherlands star Patrick Kluivert. But, just a year later, Kluivert is the subject of enquiries from England powerhouse Manchester United and flirting with Spanish champions, Barcelona.

Garcia, on the other hand, is off to Israel where he hopes to regain his mojo.

Photo: Former AZ manager and Netherlands legend Marco Van Basten (left) gives instructions to Trinidad and Tobago winger Levi Garcia.Van Basten left AZ in January 2016 to become assistant coach of the Netherlands national team.(Copyright AZ Media)

About Lasana Liburd

Lasana Liburd is the CEO and Editor at Wired868.com and a journalist with over 20 years experience at several Trinidad and Tobago and international publications including Play the Game, World Soccer, UK Guardian and the Trinidad Express.

30 comments

What benefit would this move be to his development. I thought his agent would have plotted a move to Scotland or England. I’m disappointed because I see him as the future catalyst to our National team.

But a brave and surprising move but 1 more trinis should be doing.cant help Trinidad internationally if we hardly have players competing to win in a division plus he has a chance at Europa League football to raise the level of opponents

I know of a team fro Israel dat actually played in the UEFA champions’ league so it can’t be dat bad. I concerned about his safety. To be rated above Patrick Kluivert’s son means he has real potential.

We did not take him there because we thought the level was the same we took him there to get back his confidence and rhythm for football levi has not played a full ,90 mins in over a year he needs games to build his confidence and being on a bench again he wont achieve that objective

Here is some more info: “In 1999, I saw the wars and the Katyushas and many bombs,” he said in an interview last Saturday an hour before his team took the field. “Many people left Kiryat Shmona. The situation was very bad. There was no work and there was the bombs. I decided to take care of Kiryat Shmona and to help them.”

At first, Sheratzky looked to the city’s immediate needs: a soup kitchen for the poor, a children’s dental clinic, an English-language school. But he concluded that the city’s residents needed something else to bolster their morale, namely soccer.

I’ve seen no evidence of it being a feeder club or platform for players. But they are in the qualifying round for the next champions league.
Last season, the Israeli champions came within an away goal of getting into a group with Liverpool and Sevilla. Maybe Levi’s team will have better luck.
The European Games is one possible incentive he might not have gotten elsewhere.

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